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There aren’t many times throughout the year that i really feel the urge to fish when i don’t have a charter most because I want to get some rest before the next gig. All day Thursday, however, was one of those rare moment when I was anxious to get out there on Friday. Ive had a 3 day charter booked from SPI for a couple of months starting on Friday, sadly, it was cancelled at a day ago which left me no time to replace it. Seeing the calm winds on Thursday got my juices flowing for possible nice day of fly fishing for a big spotted lady and or a few reds mixed in. One big problem though………. I loaned my boat to a fellow good friend and guide so he could do a 3 person charter since I was high and dry.

Another friend called and said he wanted to go on Friday only to call that evening to say he couldn’t after all. ohhhh so sad for me. I guess no fishing. ahhhhhh but don’t despair. As luck would have it, a another friend shot me a text early in the morning and wanted to do a little fly throwing. This guy a one heck of a fly caster. He’s probably the 2nd best flycaster i’ve ever had on my boat. the only guy better than him happens to be a world class flycaster Rick Hartman.

We got the day started a little late since he was coming from Mcallen and had to drop off his daughter at school. By the time we got to the water it was near 10:00am. Those nice calm winds that greeted us this morning were all by a memory now. we began our first stretch of poling on the western shoreline near Horesehead. Not great numbers of fish around there, but we had several shots and only one hook up of a mid twenty trout that bit through the tippet after a short fight. It was dissappointig, however, watching any fish eat a fly is always a thrill in it of itself.

We moved after that no so productive session and headed east towards the sand. There was some beautiful clear water out there, but not many fish. We finally stopped and drifted on the sand for a while and managed to land only one red. Time was fleeing from us fast now and only had about an hour more before we had to head in.

We poled west from where we were a couple of hundred hards or more to fish some grass beds that have been holding reds. Bingo! there they were. we finished off that hour with several shots at fish, but the strong winds just made it very difficult to position the boat for good accurate casts at fish with the fly. It turned out ok at the end. We landed out limits of reds and took it in around 2:00.

A nice day with a good friend and good fishing. I can’t wait to do it again with him whenever we have some calmer winds. I truly enjoy watching a guy who can cast the flyrod with ease and accuracy matched by few.

I wasn’t planning on fishing today and i’m sure you can tell by now why. yes it’s my Birthday. A good friend and fellow guide called me yesterday late afternoon pretty much begging me to get him out of a bind. He was scheduled to take out 4 pastors from his church, however, his boss had a different idea in the the form of a meeting that he had to attend. I somewhat not really kind of sort of reluctantly agreed and told him to tell the pastors to meet me at the dock at 7:00am.

As I expected, as I pulled in the boat ramp parking lot, not a single bay boat was there save for 2 commercial crabbers. I patiently waited for the guys to arrive and the minutes ticked away ever so slowly. 7:00, 7:10, 7:20, 7:45, finally at 8:00am the guys arrived. Actually only half of the expect 4 guys made it. Two pastors were no shows and i didn’t dive into the reasons why. i was just happy to see guys who were ready to fish.

The wind speed was really nice this morning. i cant say the same for the wind direction! i was not expecting a east north east kind of wind. Of course this throws off my drift pattern yet i can’t let that throw me off my duty.

Our first 30-45 minutes were pathetic. no fish caught and none seen moving off. As soon as i got to the spot where i had been catching the last week or so, the trout started pounding our lures. We weren’t catching very big trout initially. Most were in the 16-18 range. First drift brought in 6 trout and then the second drift provided up the last 4 for limits. At the end of the 2nd drift and after the limits of trout were in, the bigger ladies started showing up. Ten to fifteen trout in the 20-23″ range were hauled in and released. LOL. the guys were beside themselves as i reminded them these trout being released were bigger than the ones we had in the ice chest. At the end of our third drift only 2 reds had joined our party and a nice flattie crashed in as well. I knew the guys really wanted to catch some reds so i decided to leave lots of big trout to look for some reds.

i made my way to a part of the bay i had not been to this year and it treated us well. we made 3 medium length trips and a few reds decided to play…..we at least for one of the guys. Pastor Joe landed all 6 reds before the other pastor even caught one! Close to the end of our trip, Señora Laguna decided to have mercy on God’s servant by allowing him to land 3 reds.

it was a very good trip overall. we landed around 30 trout, 13-15 reds and one flounder. once again, TTF’s hackberry Huslter Who Dat and Gleaux, killer flats minnow, and trout killer did what they do.

By
roelRoel VillanuevaComments Off on Like a Good Neighbor State Farm is THERE!

Sing with me…”who’dat be who gonna slay ‘dem Reds? who dat, who dat…who dat, who dat!”

I will explain shortly why i had you sing that version of the the “who’dat” song from the New Orleans Saints.

For a long time now, State Farm Agent Domingo Ramos has been telling me he’s going to book a day with me. well it finally happened! He and his good friend Jaime (who by the way has one of the most amazing hunting leases i have ever seen. he showed me a video clip on his I phone and I kid you not….OVER a hundred does and Bucks around his feeder, 30-40 turkeys, and countless javalinas all over the place!!! but i digress) met early in the morning. i ask them to be at the dock a little earlier than normal due to the amount of boat traffic i was expecting from a normal Saturday and a fishing tournament taking place at the park. i my self got to the dock around 6:00am with a several boats already launched and launching!!! so how no one has managed to get my favorite parking spot so i was able to get in and out quickly.

right before the guys got there, i thought i was witnessing a bass tournament or a nascar race! boat after boat after boat just flying down the arroyo like bats trying to get out of Hell! Then it was my turn…once the guys were on board i floored it and was flying down the arroyo at a blazing speed of 35mph!!! ok….not so much a blaze, but not bad for a 90 yami.

As you can imagine and if you read my report from yesterday, there was not a question in my mind where i was going. There was no doubt today we would have similar results. what i wasn’t counting on was the early morning high winds that punched with the force of a young Mike Tyson. Still, I was confident fish would still be there.

About 5 minutes into our first drift, the first red came in. That was quickly followed by another red pulling on the line like a tractor in a mud pull. Unfortunately that red got off after about a minute fight, but at that point i was relieved the fish seemed to be still be there. the first drift produced 2 reds and a trout. Not too bad, but i was expecting a few more based on the start we had. I proceeded to make a few more drifts and had to carefully make my way back to my starting point trying not to mess any one of the other 6-8 boats that were around me.

By around 10:00, we had 5 reds and 9 trout. For the next two hours though, it seemed like the the last two fish were going to elude us. The area i was fishing slowed down almost no action in large part because of all the traffic, however, i was pleased with the amount of fish she did release to us. I moved to another area that had a little clearer water in hope of sight casting to the last fish. Shortly after a nice 26″ red cruised in front of us heading left about 50 ft away. the guys had their lures in water so i grabed one of the other rods. I sent the Killer flats minnow on a mission and as it landed i reeled quickly to keep the lure out of the grass and then dropped the lure right in front of the nose of the waiting prey. Like an gator pouncing on a fresh piece of meat, the red flared its gills and inhaled the lure.

It put up a good fight before finally realizing it was going to be table fare for the Ramos family that evening.

We caught a few more fish here and there and called it quits around 12:30. Then back the dock is where the fun began. the mayhem that goes on there on these kinds of days are eventually going to drive me insane. sometimes i laugh, but other times i just have to shake my head at it. This one guy took up one of the ramps for over 30 minutes trying to fix a problem on his engine clueless to the fact there were about 30-40 boat both waiting to launch and pull out. where is the dock police when you need them.

another good day of fishing with limits of reds and trout. It wasn’t as good as yesterday but definitely a good day. Now to answer the question of why the “who’ dat song. The lure that produced the most to day was the Hackberry Hustler Who ‘Dat!!! Take a look at the photos..anyone notice those bright pink eyes? ……its in the eyes